EXPLORING UNIVERSITY TEACHERS’ EXPERIENCES OF TEACHING ACADEMICALLY UNDERPREPARED STUDENTS: A QUALITATIVE STUDY OF FOUNDATIONAL LITERACY AND NUMERACY DEFICITS IN MAKRAN DIVISION, BALOCHISTAN

Abstract

University teachers in Makran Division, Balochistan, Pakistan, encounter a structural challenge that remains largely unexamined in the qualitative literature: teaching incoming undergraduate students who lack the foundational literacy and numeracy competencies presupposed by university-level study. This qualitative study explores the nature, structural origins, and pedagogical consequences of academic underpreparedness as experienced and articulated by 18 university teachers across three institutions in Makran Division — the University of Gwadar, the University of Turbat, and the University of Makran (Panjgur). Grounded in a constructivist ontology and interpretivist epistemology (Lincoln & Guba, 1985; Creswell & Poth, 2016), the study employs reflexive thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006, 2021) of 18 semi-structured interviews conducted between March and June 2026. Initial coding (Saldaña, 2021) produced 80 initial codes consolidated into 29 focused codes and three overarching themes with nine sub-themes: (1) Arriving Without the Tools, documenting the pervasive foundational literacy and numeracy deficits teachers encounter; (2) The Pipeline of Failure, tracing the structural conditions — social promotion, examination malpractice, and admission practices — that produce and conceal these deficits; and (3) Teaching in the Void, capturing teachers’ improvised pedagogical adaptations, the institutional vacuum they inhabit, and the structural reforms they identify as necessary. Results show that the lack of student academic preparation is systematic, multidimensional, and structurally repeated in Makran Division. The contribution of this research lies in its qualitative findings, which will be relevant to teacher training institutes, university foundation programs, the examination system, and higher education policy.